Die Grafdigter

Mila Kozlowa is a Moscow-based psychotherapist who sits in counselling sessions fantasising about grilled salmon and sex. She also thinks about her frail, old grandmother, Babushka. What is she hiding from her? Did her parents really disappear during a space mission? When Mila meets a South African who shares his war trauma with her, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur. Where does the dream end and reality begin? And for how long can one believe one’s own lies?

Gerda Taljaard is the author of the novels ’n Engel in die hoenderhok, Kelder, Die laksman se dogter, and Vier susters. Die Laksman se dogter received the kykNET-Rapport Film Prize; Vier Susters won the kykNET-Rapport Fiction Prize and the ATKV Woordveertjie Award for Prose. Her poems and short stories have appeared in various publications, and she has received the Litera and De Compagnie prizes for best short story. She lives in Pretoria.